Home Home insurance Claims One of my trees fell into my neighbor’s yard last night during a storm. It did not cause any damage. Do I need to call my home insurance company to file a claim? One of my trees fell into my neighbor’s yard last night during a storm. It did not cause any damage. Do I need to call my home insurance company to file a claim? By Barbara Marquand | Posted on July 16, 2012 Why you can trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing the timely, accurate and expert information consumers need to make smart insurance decisions. All our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. Our team carefully vets our rate data to ensure we only provide reliable and up-to-date insurance pricing. We follow the highest editorial standards. Our content is based solely on objective research and data gathering. We maintain strict editorial independence to ensure unbiased coverage of the insurance industry. No, and there are a couple of reasons for this. The first has to do with where the insurance responsibility falls with downed trees. Generally you file a claim with your own home insurance company if a tree falls and damages your property — no matter where the tree came from. So if the tree caused damage in your neighbor’s yard, your neighbor would file a claim with his own insurance company. The neighbor’s insurer could come after you and your home insurance company, though, if there were signs you neglected caring for the tree, and this led to its fall. Secondly, home insurance typically does not cover the removal of fallen trees if they don’t damage property. To qualify for a claim, the tree must have damaged a structure covered by the policy. An exception is sometimes made if a tree blocks a driveway or a wheelchair ramp for accessing the house. What if the tree had caused damage to your neighbor’s house? In that case, your neighbor’s home insurance policy would pay for the damage, minus the deductible, and the cost of removing the tree up to a specified limit. Although home insurance probably won’t come into play here, that doesn’t you can’t be neighborly and offer to pitch in to remove the tree. For more, see Chain saw massacre: When trees go down, whose insurance picks up the tab? QuickTake How to file a successful mold claim Are pools and hot tubs covered by homeowners insurance? Can insurance companies enter your house or examine your car? Is carpenter ant damage covered by homeowners insurance? Does homeowners insurance cover a leaking washing machine? Home insurance claims: How to file and what you should know Does homeowners insurance cover rotting wood? Guide to the insurance claims history report (CLUE) Does homeowners insurance cover power surges and outages? How much do claims increase home insurance rates? Does home insurance cover accidental kitchen fires? 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